Olympic boxer Savannah Marshall thanks everyone for believing in her after joining Nicola Adams in Rio

The Hartlepool girl booked her place for Rio after defeating Qian Li on a unanimous points decision in the World Championships in Kazakhstan.

After going out of the first Olympic qualifier at the opening round, the pressure was on in Astana.

Marshall knew nothing less than a place in the semi-finals would do if she was to become the 10th boxer from Great Britain to qualify for Brazil.

And how she responded, adding the Chinese fourth seed to the list of victims at the Barys Arena, following points wins over sixth-seed Elena Vystropova and India’s Pooja Rani.

Marshall, who was part of the GB Boxing team at London 2012, said: “I’d like to thank all of my team, my team mates, my coach Tim Coulter, Sky and my family and friends for all of their hard work in supporting and believing in me.

“I am really happy and grateful to be given another chance to compete at the Olympic Games.”

She joins friend and team-mate Nicola Adams and eight male colleagues who have qualified.

Adams and Marshall are both guaranteed at least a bronze medal at the World Championships and have a chance to improve on this when they compete in Thursday’s semi-finals.

Both boxers have a good track-record in the World Championships. Adams having won silver medals in 2008, 2010 and 2012.

Marshall won silver in 2010 in Barbados and went one better in 2012 when she became the first and only female boxer from Great Britain to win the World Championship.

Adams said: “I have won gold at every major tournament except the World Championships so I want to win this one to complete my collection.”

Marshall and Adams will join Galal Yafai, Muhammad Ali, Qais Ashfaq, Joe Cordina, Antony Fowler, Joshua Buatsi, Lawrence Okolie and Joe Joyce as part of a GB Boxing team in Rio.